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Thursday, 19 June 2014

In 2008 the UK economy collapsed into a crisis from which it has yet to recover. Despite the endlessly repeated Tory rhetoric that this crisis was caused by the Labour party, the real cause of the crisis was a global spree of reckless financial sector gambling, often on extremely complex financial products that the buyer clearly didn't even understand. The Labour party were somewhat to blame for not only refusing to undo the financial sector deregulations of the Thatcher era, but actually even further deregulating the financial markets themselves. But the only Tory complaints at the time that Labour were further deregulating the financial sector were that Gordon Brown's deregulations hadn't gone far enough, and that the UK should strive to be more like Ireland!Reckless financial sector speculation caused the global financial sector insolvency crisis and necessitated the biggest state subsidies in economic history to prevent the UK banks collapsing into their own black holes of debt. The problem is that it doesn't matter how much evidence there is that deregulated capitalism caused the financial sector insolvency crisis, the Tories and the right-wing dominated press are absolutely determined to create the simplistic narrative that the Labour party, and welfare spending are to blame for the fallout from the financial sector crisis.The Tory narrative is that the Labour party "bankrupted" the economy with their excessive welfare spending, and the actual facts of the matter are irrelevant. Instead of attempting to offer an alternative narrative built on the actual facts, such as the fact that the bankers' bailouts cost more than the entire national debt that the Tories endlessly fearmonger about, the Labour leader Ed Miliband has decided to capitulate.

Instead of attempting to counter the "blame Labour" right-wing rhetoric with the truth, Miliband and the shadow Work and Pensions secretary Rachael Reeves have decided instead to try and out-Tory the Tories.Their latest plan is to revoke social security for 18-21 year olds, and replace it with a pitiful benefit only payable if the youngsters do workfare or training schemes. No doubt the same alphabet soup of extremely dodgy corporate outsourcing parasites (A4e, G4S, Serco, Sudexo, Capita, Atos ...) will be lining themselves up to administer the Labour party workfare schemes, and provide the Labour party "training" schemes, just as they have cashed in for the last four years administering the Tory parties workfare schemes and the Tory parties "training" schemes (in which people are "trained" at the taxpayers' expense how to wipe their bottoms by these companies).In my view a much more sensible strategy for the Labour party would have been to attack the Tories for the fact that long-term youth unemployment has risen 57% since the Tories came to power in 2010, and that this huge rise has come despite the ever increasing use of workfare schemes designed to artificially exclude hundreds of thousands of (mainly young) people from the unemployment figures, even though they still receive unemployment benefits throughout their term of compulsory unpaid labour.This astonishing rise in the rate of long-term youth unemployment is by no means the first example of the gross incompetence of Iain Duncan Smith providing Ed Miliband with a huge stick to whack the Tories with, but Ed preferring to set about beating himself over the head with it instead. Back in February 2013 the Cort of Appeals declared Iain Duncan Smith's Workfare schemes for the unemployed unlawful, but instead of using this humiliating court judgement to attack Iain Duncan Smith, Ed Miliband and the Labour leadership actually decided to collude with the Tories in order to help Iain Duncan Smith get a vile piece of retroactive legislation rushed through parliament in a single day. Not only did Miliband refuse to attack Iain Duncan Smith for his incompetence, he actually helped IDS to stick two fingers up at the courts by quickly rewriting his own hopelessly botched legislation and applying the changes retroactively so that his workfare rules would have been lawful had they been written that way in the past.Now Miliband is refusing to attack the Tories for the huge rise in long-term youth unemployment since 2010, and instead seems to want to further reinforce the Tory narratives that welfare spending and "scroungers" are to blame for the crisis through his new plan of attacking the pitiful amounts paid out to workless 18-21 year olds, instead of actively doing anything to actually help them.Given that the economic crisis was undeniably caused by the bankers, a much better Labour party strategy might have been to highlight the huge rise in long-term youth unemployment since the bankers trashed the economy and to propose a new tax on bankers bonuses designed to fund paid apprenticeships for young people in real businesses (rather than ludicrous taxpayer funded "how to wipe your bottom" courses with A4e).Instead of developing a strategy which highlights the reckless bankers and the incompetent Tories as the culprits, Ed Miliband's Labour party seem intent on painting the victims of the bankers' crisis as the guilty parties who are deserving of punishment for their "idleness". Ed Miliband and Rachael Reeves seem intent on punishing a generation of youngsters who were still in primary school when the bankers were trashing the economy with their reckless gambling spree, because the economy still hasn't recovered sufficiently to offer these kids the prospects of real paid employment. This may seem like a sensible strategy from within the bubble of the Labour party leadership, but to countless thousands of traditional Labour voters it's bound to kill the last vestiges of hope that New Labour offer anything other than vindictive Tory-lite policies designed to appeal to readers of the Daily Mail and the S*n.

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Thursday, 12 June 2014

The Liberal Democrats began writing their own political obituary when they decided to go back on their pre-election promises to vote against any increase in tuition fees in order to allow the Tories to triple university fees to £9,000 per year, making study at English public universities the most expensive in the world.This betrayal was particularly stupid given that the student lobby were one of the core Lib-Dem demographics. This U-turn was so bad that huge numbers of people who voted Lib-Dem in 2010 because they likes their stance against the commodification of the education system have sworn to themselves that they will never ever vote Lib-Dem again. People aren't just temporarily angry about this, they are enraged because as far as they are concerned, the Liberal Democrats stole their votes.The fees that the Liberal Democrats helped the Tories to introduce are not just three times as high as the New Labour fees, they also come at a much higher rate of interest. Instead of being index linked directly to the rate of inflation like the old loans were, the new loans accrue interest at the rate of inflation plus 3%. Even with interest rates being held at all time historic low of 0.5% for the last five years the government now admits that they got their sums badly wrong and that 45% of graduates will never earn enough to pay off their loans, rather than the 28% they originally predicted.There are two main consequences of this huge miscalculation. The first is that the government now admits that their massive hike in student fees is already perilously close to failing to break even, meaning that not only will it cost millions of students extra, it also looks extremely likely that this new system will actually end up costing the taxpayer extra too.The second consequence is that millions of graduates look set to spend their entire working lives making payments towards the cost of their higher education. These repayments kick in at £21,000 per year and are administered through a 9% direct taxation (taken directly from the salary like income tax and National Insurance). Around half of students will spend their entire working lives paying this 9% Aspiration Tax without ever actually paying the loan off.The government narrative was that this hike in fees was necessary in order to "put higher education on a sustainable footing for the long-term"but the fact is that the huge increase in student fees is already perilously close to failing to break even, and just one negative economic factor (such as a recession, natural disaster or even a rise in the rate of inflation) could drive the new student loan system deep into the red.If putting "higher education on a sustainable footing for the long-term" was actually such an important factor, it's clearly an indicator of grotesque incompetence that the plan is already dangerously close to not breaking even after just a couple of years.There is an alternative explanation for the implementation of a scheme which will result in a massive hike in the levels of student debt, and that is the idea that the 9% Aspiration Tax has been deliberately imposed on students from poor and ordinary backgrounds as a social barrier, designed to hinder social mobility.

The fact is that the most obvious beneficiaries from the introduction of this Aspiration tax are the children with parents wealthy enough to pay the fees for them.The children of the wealthy establishment already have loads of huge advantages in life, and the imposition of a 9% Aspiration Tax on "the lower orders" when they get uppity and try to better themselves, is an excellent way of further protecting the privilege of the children of the establishment minority.For parents who can afford to send their children to private schools like Eton (£34,000+ per year in fees), Harrow (£33,000+ per year in fees) or Westminster (£33,000+ in fees), it would hardly be an enormous stretch to cough up an additional £9,000 per year so that their children can avoid ever having to pay the 9% Aspiration Tax that is imposed on graduates from "the lower orders".It's easy to see how imposing an additional 9% income tax on the lower orders would create yet another life advantage for the children of the establishment class. The 9% Aspiration Tax is a method of confiscating disposable income from "the lower orders" so their financial means are even more diminished. This means that there will be even less competition from below for the establishment class. If two people, one from an establishment family and the other from an ordinary background, qualify with the same class of degree at the same university and end up earning the same salary, the establishment graduate is at a huge advantage when it comes to setting up their own business, because they won't have to pay the 9% Aspiration Tax. This means they will have more disposable income to invest in establishing their own business. The 9% Aspiration Tax levied on graduates from ordinary backgrounds also puts the establishment graduate at a huge advantage in life when it comes to other things too, such as buying a house, or starting a family. In my view, you'd have to be a very gullible person to naively accept the government narrative on the reasons behind any of their schemes (no matter which party is in charge). Anyone with an inquisitive mind should consider alternative explanations. In my view the alternative explanation that makes a hell of a lot more sense than the official explanation, is that the main beneficiaries from such a scheme will be the children of the establishment, ie, the children of the very MPs who voted in favour of the introduction of Aspiration Taxes for graduates from ordinary backgrounds in 1998, and then voted to triple them in 2004, and then to triple them again in 2010.

Some people might say that it's unreasonable to assume such sickening ulterior motives from the political classes, and complain that the idea that they would deliberately hinder social mobility to protect the privileges of the establishment class is unconscionable. However these people are probably not familiar with the education secretary Michael Gove's assertion that "some people will, apparently, be put off applying to our elite institutions by the prospect of taking on a debt of this size. Which, as far as I'm concerned, is all to the good".

Even if the government narrative is unquestioningly accepted, and analysis of who the main beneficiaries are is completely ignored, the fact that the government were so far out with their calculations should be grounds for sacking the universities minister David Willetts. However, just like other grotesquely incompetent Tory ministers like Iain Duncan Smith and George Osborne, he's seemingly immune from censure for his failings.

Once again, like so many other political issues, the introduction of Aspiration Taxes for graduates from ordinary backgrounds boils down to a simple choice between grotesque incompetence, or outright malice. There is simply no other explanation.

Another Angry Voice
is a not-for-profit page which generates absolutely no revenue from
advertising and accepts no money from corporate or political interests.
The only source of revenue for Another Angry Voice
is the PayPal donations box (which can be found in the right hand
column, fairly near the top of the page). If you could afford to make a donation to help keep this site going, it would be massively appreciated.

This ex-BNP pair stood as the Britain First candidates in Wales and Scotland in the 2014 European elections. As Britain First didn't stand any candidates in England, they advised their followers to vote for UKIP, which would hardly seem to be the kind of endorsement that Nigel Farage would want for his "we're definitely not fascists" party.

UPDATE:Britain First founder Jim Dowson quit in July 2014 saying that "No matter how many times I told [Paul Golding] I did not want decent Muslims intimidated, he just continued doing it ... I have come to the conclusion that no matter how hard I tried, you cannot escape from the fact that the group is being overrun with racists and extremists".The largest and fastest growing UK political page on Facebook

Over one million people have decided to "like" Britain First's Facebook page, meaning this extreme-right hate group has more followers than any other political party in the UK.

It should be a source of acute national embarrassment that at a time when the British public should be looking to genuine political alternatives to the bankrupt neoliberal status quo in Westminster, that hundreds of thousands of people are turning to an extreme-right hate group hell bent on scapegoating minorities, and that these followers are spreading the Britain First messages of hate and fear all over Facebook. Deceitful tacticsBritain First use populist
infographics to dupe unsuspecting people into following their hate
group. In between Islamophobic rants and immigration lies the Britain First admins intersperse images that the majority of people agree with
(infographics decrying animal cruelty, anti-paedophilia memes, support
our troops/football team memes, don't leave dogs in hot cars memes ...) so that ordinary people get hooked in to following their page.A lot of people end up following the page because they saw one of these populist "honey trap" images, without even realising that the page that produced them is an extreme-right hate group.Dodgy party funding

One of the most distasteful things about Britain First is the way that they elicit donations to their right-wing political party through animal cruelty shock tactics.

The image to the right is one of their most popular fundraising campaigns ever (shared a mind-boggling 791,234 times).

The image description says "help us stop this cruelty!" and includes a link to their Paypal donations page. The problem is that Britain First have made absolutely no effort to segregate funds raised through this "help us stop this cruelty!" appeal from their general donations. Neither have they explained anywhere how they plan to use all of this money to actually prevent animal cruelty.

Britain First believe that they can get away with appealing to people's good nature (abhorrence at animal cruelty) in order to soak up huge numbers of donations from unsuspecting people who imagine that their donations will be used to prevent animal cruelty, rather than fund an extreme-right political party.

One of the most commonly occurring images on the Britain First Facebook page and on the Britain First website
is a picture of the murdered soldier Lee Rigby. It is absolutely
sickening that they choose to continue desecrating his memory by making
him the "poster boy" of their extreme-right hate group despite the objections of his family.

Here's what Lee Rigby's mother had to say about their use of his name on the ballot paper.

"Well
yet again can anymore heartbreak be thrown at me and my family, so
heartbroken tonight. Electoral commission phoned saying that a party in
Wales has stood for election in the European parliament named
Britain First using Lee's name to promote their party and some fucker
from the commission allowed it to go through but [they] cannot take any
action
till after the election which is held on my sons anniversary of his
murder. Their views are not what Lee believed in and has no support from
the family. Their will be a family apology from the electoral
commission but cannot be made public till after 22nd of May. Lee's
legacy
will live on through Team Lee United Forces and all the good I hope to
achieve xxxx"[source]

The worst thing about it is that some vulnerable people may see the poppies and think that they're donating to a cause which helps former soldiers, rather than an extreme-right hate group.

The Royal British Legion have been informed that Britain First are using the poppy symbol to sell their tatty jackets and t-shirts, but even if the RBL come out and condemn this tactic in the strongest terms, one would expect Britain First to completely ignore them, just as they completely ignore the suffering they are inflicting on Lyn Rigby.

Outright Lies

Britain First are also guilty of spreading outright lies on their Facebook page. In one widely shared Britain First meme they claim that asylum seekers and illegal immigrants receive £29,900 per year in benefits.

This is blatantly untrue for several obvious reasons:

Asylum Seekers and illegal immigrants are not the same thing, so they wouldn't have the same entitlements.

Illegal immigrants are not even entitled to benefits. Given that they are in the country illegally they are extremely unlikely to turn up at the Jobcentre asking for benefits.

The Tory benefits cap was introduced at £26,000 per year, so it seems more than a little unlikely that they are giving £29,900 per year to illegal immigrants.

The extreme right love to use the argument that "we can't even talk about immigration without being labeled racists and bigots". The problem is of course that they're not just "talking about" immigration, they are spreading outright lies about immigration.

In my view it is unacceptable to label someone a racist or a bigot if they raise legitimate concerns about immigration. However, if they resort to spreading outright lies about the subject in order to stir up resentment and hatred of immigrants, then fire away, because those are clearly the tactics of racists and bigots.Hypocrisy

The admins on the Britain First Facebook page are an appalling bunch of hypocrites. They whine endlessly that their views are under threat from censorship, however they have a policy of purging their page of any critical comments and banning dissenting voices from ever coming back again.

To harp on and on about "free speech" whilst simultaneously engaging in one of the biggest mass censorship campaigns Facebook has ever seen is such an appalling display of hypocrisy that anyone, no matter what their political orientation, should be shocked by it.

These people hate free speech, and they only ever invoke it to claim that they have the right to do and say whatever they like (conning people out of money with animal cruelty shock tactics, debasing the poppy symbol, making a dead soldier their "poster boy" despite the protestations of his family, telling outright lies). When it comes to other people's free speech the Britain First admins can't hit the "block and ban" button quickly enough. In their view freedom of speech
is the freedom to agree with them, if you happen to disagree with them, then
freedom of speech doesn't exist for you.

The fact that they have censored such a huge number of people has inspired me to come up with this "I've been censored by Britain First" certificatewhich people can use as their Facebook banner image, because it should be a mark of pride that you've been censored by a bunch of extreme-right hatemongers.A closed ideology echo chamber[Main article]

The Britain First Facebook page is a classic example of a closed ideology echo chamber, in which information, ideas, and beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission and repetition inside an enclosed system.

Their policy of routinely purging the page of critical comments and banning dissenting voices demonstrates their commitment to keeping their followers brainwashed in an atmosphere of conformity.

Any group or society in which people who ask awkward questions or present counter-evidence are routinely censored is clearly a closed ideology echo chamber. With over 400,000 followers the Britain First Facebook page is one of the biggest examples of a ruthlessly enforced closed ideology environment in the history of Facebook.

Fascism

The American author Laurence Britt defined 14 characteristics of fascist regimes (you can see a copy of his article here). I'll list the 14 characteristics and compare with Britain First policies and strategies.

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Britain First make constant use of patriotic mottoes, slogans, symbols
and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols
on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the
importance of human rights - One of Britain First's most common complaints is against the European Human Rights Act.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying
Cause - Britain First rally people into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the
need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or
religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. The supremacy of the
military/avid militarism - Britain First constantly intersperse their posts with posts designed to glorify the military (often in order to sell their own merchandise or convince people to sign up to their organisation).

6. Controlled Mass Media - Thankfully Britain First haven't got to the stage where they can exert any control over the media, however their policy of ruthlessly censoring dissenting opinion on their Facebook page indicates their contempt for freedom of speech and their desire to control the spread of information.

7. Obsession with
national security - Britain First are always harping on about threats to national security in order to whip up fear amongst their followers.

8. Religion and ruling elite
tied together - Fortunately Britain First are not part of the ruling elite, but it is absolutely clear that they see religion as an integral part of their political mission. Here's a quote from their statement of principles: "Britain First is committed to maintaining and strengthening Christianity as the foundation of our society and culture".

9. Corporate Power is Protected - Britain First like to present themselves as an alternative to globalisation, however their dalliance with the neoliberal Tea Party fringe in the US show that they have more in common with hardline neoliberals than they like to let on. Another indicator that they are no opponents of globalisation is the way they use their Facebook page and website to propagandise for Cadbury's, which was once a British company, but is now owned by the American multinational giant Kraft.10. Power of labor
suppressed or eliminated - Britain First make a big deal out of opposing socialism and trade unions as enemy ideologies and they also use their Facebook page to attack the minimum wage. 11. Disdain and suppression
of intellectuals and the arts - The Britain First Facebook page is rife with anti-intellectual comments and infographics.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Britain First are obsessed with crime and punishment, making frequent calls for the death penalty to be re-introduced. Nooses and gallows are recurring motifs on the Britain First page, and they also use public outrage at judicial decisions, in order to con people into donating to their political party.13. Rampant cronyism and
corruption - Thankfully Britain First have no political power, so they are not in the position to use their power to enrich themselves and their cronies, but judging by the fact that there is no open process over how appointments are made within the party, and their deceitful fundraising tactics, it's not hard to imagine what Britain would be like if these guys were in charge.14. Fraudulent elections - Once again, these guys are not in charge of the country, so they haven't got the power to rig elections in their own favour.

Of the fourteen characteristics of fascism identified by Laurence Britt, Britain First meet most of them, and the only ones they don't meet are the ones that it is impossible for them to meet due to their absolute lack of political power.

A national disgrace

A severe economic depression followed by the rapid rise of right-wing nationalist extremism and the scapegoating of minority groups seems to be a case of history repeating itself.

An
interesting contrast can be made with the rise of the left-wing anti-corruption party Podemos (We Can) in Spain. They experienced a
similar lightning rise in popularity, with their Facebook page passing 500,000 followers within three months of the foundation of the party. But instead of fostering fear and and inciting hatred of minorities, they lay the blame firmly at the door of the corrupt Spanish establishment and propose reforms to put political power back into the hands of the people.

Podemos are committed to fighting corruption and increasing people power through democratic participation. Britain First are committed to parading around on paramilitary style marches, invading mosques, scamming money from unsuspecting people and spreading outright lies.

It's pretty sad that in Spain, a country that was still ruled over by a fascist dictatorship less than 40 years ago, people are looking to a party that presents a real alternative to neoliberalism and corruption, whilst in Britain, a country that has never experience a full-on fascist regime, people are looking to the extreme-right fringe in their hundreds of thousands.

Given that it is impossible to fight back against Britain First on their own page due to their "delete and ban" censorship policy for all dissenting voices, people who oppose Britain First's brand of right-wing extremism need to find other ways of criticising them. In this section I'll outline a few tactics.

Criticise the shared versions of their images - Britain First can use their admin powers to delete all criticism from the original iterations of their pictures, but they can't delete criticism on the new iterations that are created when their followers share their work. If you see any of your Facebook friends sharing Britain First images, you can leave comments expressing your distaste.Report them - If you see Britain First using deceitful tactics to raise party donations you can report them to the Electoral Commission. If you see them using poppy images to sell their own merchandise you can report them to the Royal British Legion. If you see any Britain First posts that you consider to be in breech of Facebook terms and conditions, you can report them to Facebook. If you see them using Royal Crests and you suspect they have no permission, you can report them to The Lord Chamberlain's Office. If you see anyone posting unlawful comments on there (such as incitement to murder, racist or religious hate crime, criminal threats ...) you can report the individual to the police. If you see someone using making extremist and offensive statements(using the term "muzrats" to describe Muslims, or calling for a Nazi style holocaust against all Muslims) you can click on their profile and see if their employer is listed and send screen shots of their extremist comments to their employers.Convince your friends to unlike the page - Clicking this link allows you to find out which of your Facebook friends follow the Britain First page. You could consider sending them a message explaining your objections to this extreme-right hate group and asking them to consider unliking the page (feel free to follow these 3 simple steps if you like).Spread awareness - You can spread awareness of Britain First's disgustingly hypocritical censorship policy by using this "I've been censored by Britain First" certificate as your Facebook banner.Laugh at them - There are several Britain First parody pages out there including Britain Furst and Britian First. Sometimes the best thing to do when it comes to the extreme-right fascist fringe is to take the piss out of them and laugh at them.

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Thursday, 5 June 2014

This is an open
letter to Peter Wardle, the Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission,
which is the body responsible for regulation of political parties, and political donations in
the UK.

Dear Peter Wardle,

I am writing to you in regards to a social media funding campaign which has been conducted by the political party Britain First, an extremist party I'm sure you are very well aware of after widespread condemnation of the Electoral Commission's decision to allow the party to use "Remember Lee Rigby" as their description on European election ballot papers, despite the fact that Lee Rigby's family strongly object to Britain First and their followers desecrating his memory by making him the "poster boy" of their extremist campaign.

The specific issue I would like to draw to your attention to is the way Britain First uses social media in order to collect donations. In my view it is important that this issue is investigated in order to establish whether or not Britain First is guilty of obtaining funding for their party under false pretenses.

The specific funding campaign I am referring to is a widely shared animal cruelty image, which includes an appeal to donate to a Britain First Paypal account so that they can "stop this cruelty!" (see embedded image).

As you can see from the screengrab of this campaign, it has been shared over 790,000 times in just a few days, meaning that it will have been seen in tens of millions of Facebook news feeds.

The fact that this image has been so widely shared means that their appeal for donations in the image description will also have been seen by tens of millions of people, and it is conceivable that a great number of people may have donated to this Britain First Paypal account without even realising that they are funding a political party, let alone an extreme-right political party.

I have a number of questions relating to the way Britain First have been using animal cruelty images to raise funds like this.

1. Does a fundraising campaign which makes no mention of the fact that the organisation receiving the donations is a political party comply with Electoral Commission rules?

2. Does the Electoral Commission have any guidance for political parties in relation to using social media to raise party donations? If so, is the Britain First "help us stop this cruelty!" fundraising campaign in compliance with this guidance?

3. If
there is no specific guidance on how political parties can take
advantage of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Google
Plus to collect party donations, does the Electoral Commission have
plans to introduce any guidance?

4. Does the Electoral Commission consider the use of animal cruelty shock tactics an acceptable form of eliciting party political donations?

5. Have Britain First registered the existence of this Paypal fundraising account with the Electoral Commission?

6. Given that individuals can only donate to UK political parties if they are on a UK electoral register, what steps have Britain First taken (if any) to ensure that donations to their Paypal fundraising account from non-UK registered citizens are returned?

7. Given that UK political parties are not allowed to accept donations from foreign registered businesses and corporations, what steps have Britain First taken (if any) to ensure that
donations to their Paypal fundraising account from non-UK based businesses are
returned?

8. Given that all of the donations given to Britain First as a result of this appeal were done under the "help us stop this cruelty!" slogan, are Britain First under any legal obligation to demonstrate how these funds have actually been used to prevent animal cruelty? Or can they just keep these donations and do whatever they like with them?

9. Given that all of the donations given to Britain First as a result of this appeal were done under the "help us stop this cruelty!" slogan, what steps (if any) have Britain First taken to segregate these donations from their general funds?

10. If Britain First are under no legal obligation to segregate the funds raised through this "help us stop this cruelty!" campaign from their general accounts, and they are under no obligation to demonstrate how they have used these funds to prevent animal cruelty, what steps would the Electoral Commission take in order to prevent political parties from collecting political donations under false pretenses like this in future?

In my view these are very important questions about party political funding and I would appreciate a timely response. If any of these ten questions fall outside the remit of the Electoral Commission, I would appreciate it if you could seek responses from the appropriate authorities, or at the very least, advise me of the appropriate authorities so that I can contact them myself.

As a matter of courtesy I am informing you that I have published a copy of this letter on my widely read personal blog, meaning that many of my readers will be as keen to hear your answers as I am.

If you send me a statement of responses to these questions for publication on my blog, I will post it on the blog post beneath this letter.

Reply from the Electoral CommissionDear Mr Clark,Re: Britain First - Animal cruelty campaignThank you for your emails to the Commission. The Chief Executive has asked me to reply to you.The Commission is grateful for you bringing these serious concerns to our attention. We are in contact with the police in relation to the allegations you raise of potential criminal offences by Britain First. We are also presently looking into other matters relating to compliance by Britain First with the rules on political party finance that we regulate; and will include the aspects you raise in this regard. It is not appropriate for the Commission to presently make any comment on the detail of such matters.I reply below on each of your questions to the Commission on the apparent use by Britain First of animal cruelty images to raise funds:

1. Does a fundraising campaign which makes no mention of the fact that the organisation receiving the donations is a political party comply with Electoral Commission rules? This is not a question of Electoral Commission rules. Rather it is a matter for the police as to whether fraud related criminal offence is being committed. There could possibly also be a charity law concern. We are notifying both the police and the Charity Commission. I would add that the Commission has recommended to government that the law we regulate should be amended to require political parties to clearly identify on their online campaigning material that it is of their political party.

2. Does the Electoral Commission have any guidance for political parties in relation to using social media to raise party donations? If so, is the Britain First "help us stop this cruelty!" fundraising campaign in compliance with this guidance? Yes, we do have full guidance, because the legal framework for a political party raising donations through social media is no different to using any other means (our guidance is published on the Commission’s web-site).That is, the rules equally apply. This means that donations over £500 can only be lawfully accepted by political parties from permissible sources, and there are requirements for reporting donations from individuals above aggregated financial thresholds to us (£1,500 to a party local ‘accounting unit’ or £7,500 to the central party). In addition political parties have further ‘statements of accounts’ reporting requirements to us, which accounts we publish. All of our guidance, reported donation and statements of accounts are on our web-site. In view of the changing use of social media we keep our guidance under review in this regard.

3. If there is no specific guidance on how political parties can take advantage of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus to collect party donations, does the Electoral Commission have plans to introduce any guidance? Please see answer to 2 above.

4. Does the Electoral Commission consider the use of animal cruelty shock tactics an acceptable form of eliciting party political donations?It is not for the Electoral Commission to express a view on this political party campaigning technique. Our remit here is to regulate and ensure compliance with the rules on accepting and reporting political party donations. We also draw possible wider criminal offences or other apparent breaches of the law to the attention of other appropriate bodies, including the police.

5. Have Britain First registered the existence of this Paypal fundraising account with the Electoral Commission? We take your email to be an allegation that Britain First is not complying with the rules. We will be looking into the matter, including contacting the party. If we conclude the rules have not been properly followed, we will consider sanctioning Britain First and, or its responsible officers.

6. Given that individuals can only donate to UK political parties if they are on a UK electoral register, what steps have Britain First taken (if any) to ensure that donations to their Paypal fundraising account from non-UK registered individuals are returned? Please see answer to 5 above.

7. Given that UK political parties are not allowed to accept donations from foreign registered businesses and corporations, what steps have Britain First taken (if any) to ensure that donations to their Paypal fundraising account from non-UK based businesses are returned?Please see answer to 5 above.

8. Given that all of the donations given to Britain First as a result of this appeal were done under the "help us stop this cruelty!" slogan, are Britain First under any legal obligation to demonstrate how these funds have actually been used to prevent animal cruelty? Or can they just keep these donations and do whatever they like with them? Please see answer to 1 above. That the matter you raise is for the police, does not effect that, as indicated, all donations to a political party are subject to the party financing laws we regulate as to permissibility of donations and reporting to us for publication.

9. Given that all of the donations given to Britain First as a result of this appeal were done under the "help us stop this cruelty!" slogan, what steps (if any) have Britain First taken to segregate these donations from their general funds? Please see answer to 1 above. I would add that segregation of funds (or not) would not avoid the requirement for donations accepted by a political party to be permissible and reported as appropriate to the Commission for publication.

10. If Britain First are under no legal obligation to segregate the funds raised through this "help us stop this cruelty!" campaign from their general accounts, and they are under no obligation to demonstrate how they have used these funds to prevent animal cruelty, what steps would the Electoral Commission take in order to prevent political parties from collecting political donations under false pretenses like this in future? Please see answers to 1 and 5 above.

I trust this reply assures you that the Commission is taking pro-active steps to deal with allegations relating to Britain First. We will be in contact with you again in due course to let you know where matters get to. The police may also contact you. If you become aware of any other related issues of concern do kindly inform us.Yours sincerely

Wednesday, 4 June 2014

About this seriesBefore I get started on this article I'll declare my interests. I am a Yorkshireman, so I suppose that makes me English.

I wish my beautiful region had far more autonomy from Westminster, because perhaps if we had, our local representatives would have fought to protect our vital industries (steel, coal, fishing, transport), rather than letting Westminster deliberately ruin them as part of their insane ideological experiment in turning the UK economy into a supposed "post-industrial society" built around the city of London financial sector (and we all know how that absurd fantasy turned out).

I know there is no chance of Yorkshire achieving regional autonomy from London in my lifetime, but that doesn't mean I begrudge the people of Scotland their opportunity to end London rule, in fact I'm delighted for them. The only concern I have is the possibility that the people of Scotland will decline this magnificent chance to assert their autonomy.

Come September the 18th, I hope I'll be celebrating the rebirth of the Scottish nation.
I hope I'll be drinking a toast to "Scotland the brave", not mournfully lamenting for "Scotland the servile".The "pity the English" argumentOne of the most commonly occurring arguments proffered by the "No" camp, is that should Scotland decide to leave the Union, it would condemn the English to perpetual Tory rule.

It is essentially an appeal that Scotland should give up the possibility of autonomy and self-governance in order to mitigate someone else's problem.

The numbers don't add up

The first and most obvious objection to this appeal to self-sacrifice is that the numbers just don't add up. The population of Scotland is about 8% of the UK electorate, so even if 100% of Scottish people turned up to vote, and all of them voted against hardline neoliberal parties like the Tories and UKIP, it will count for nothing if the people of England vote marginally in favour of the hardline neoliberal parties. The UK would still end up with a hardline neoliberal government, and Scotland would end up with a government it overwhelmingly rejected.

It is a fact that the Scottish vote very rarely has any impact on the overall result in General Elections. Between 1979 and 1997 Scotland voted against the Tories, but the English voted in favour, so we all got a Tory government. Between 1997 and 2010 Scotland voted Labour, but so did the rest of the UK, so even if the Scottish votes were discounted, Labour would still have won, and the Tories would still have been out of power.

Ever since the Second World War, the only time the Scottish electorate has played a decisive role in determining the government of the UK is when it comes to hung parliaments, the rest of the time the UK has ended up with the government the people of England have voted for.

The idea that England would be condemned to perpetual Tory rule doesn't stand up to the slightest scrutiny because the Scottish vote very rarely actually changes anything, other than converting what would have been a tiny majority into a hung parliament. Even then, in 2010 the Liberal Democrats enabled the Tories back into power anyway, then supported all of their rotten illiberal legislation (Privatisation of the English NHS, Secret Courts, "Bedroom Tax", the Gagging Law, Retroactive workfare legislation ...).

The law of unintended consequences

The frightening thing is that the next time around it could the nightmare scenario of Scottish votes turning what would have been a small Tory majority into a minority, meaning that the Tories end up having to form a coalition with a gaggle of UKIP MPs to stay in power. Such a scenario would drive the UK even further towards right-wing neoliberal extremism, even though the vast majority of the Scottish votes that caused it were actually cast in support of more social democratic parties.

The law of unintended consequences makes it entirely possible that the Scottish electorate could actually make things a hell of a lot worse by sticking with us and trying to mitigate the Tory voting south-east.

A pointless self-sacrifice

Because the numbers just don't add up, even if Scotland remains in the union and the Scottish electorate votes overwhelmingly against the blue and purple Tories, it simply won't make a difference if the majority of England votes in favour of them.

If the people of England vote for the Tories and UKIP, history has shown that it is extremely unlikely that Scottish votes would be enough to change the overall result and save the UK from the nightmare scenario of another Tory government or (even worse) a Tory-UKIP coalition.

Even if there were just enough votes to deny the Tory-UKIP team a majority, Tory rule would probably happen anyway because the burning Labour party hatred of the SNP would probably prevent them from forming a rainbow coalition as an alternative to the blue and purple Thatcherites.

If Scotland stays in the UK in order to try to protect the English from themselves, it's more than likely to end up as a pointless self sacrifice, where Scotland ends up with yet another government it voted strongly against.Be an exampleInstead of remaining part of the Union in order to fight a losing battle against the neoliberalism of the Tories and UKIP, I believe Scotland would do the English a much bigger favour through independence.

Once Scotland is independent, the political landscape of the country would change dramatically.

Most notably the SNP would lose their raison d'etre (and presumably a lot of their voters) meaning they would need to find a new core principle to unify the party. Independence would also have a reinvigorating effect on the other parties too.

The Scottish Labour party could perhaps step away from the neoliberalism-lite agenda of the Westminster leadership, and offer the people of Scotland the social democratic Labour party of old that they actually want.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats could reform as the Scottish Liberal Party and leave behind the legacy of grotesquely illiberal Tory legislation (secret courts, "Bedroom Tax", the gagging law ... ) that were pushed through parliament with the votes of Nick Clegg's appallingly misnamed party.

Even the Scottish Conservatives could use Independence as an opportunity to abandon the Thatcherite handbook of neoliberal dogma, and perhaps try to offer more of the kind of social democratic Conservatism from the pre-Thatcher era, which was a brand of Conservatism that actually resonated with the people of Scotland.

Should Scotland vote for independence, the country will almost certainly end up with the slightly left of centre social democratic government that the people of Scotland want. This might well be in the best interests of England because it would provide us with an example of how social democracy can be a viable alternative to Thatcherite dogma in the UK.

Instead of abandoning self-determination because you take pity on the English, Scotland could do the English a huge favour by leading by example, and demonstrating that there is a better alternative to the Thatcherite neoliberal dogma favoured by the Westminster establishment.

We don't need your pity

In conclusion, you'd be an absolute fool to vote against independence out of some misguided pity for the English. If you abandon your chance at gaining autonomy over your own affairs, the historical record demonstrates that there's actually very little chance that your votes would make any difference anyway.

If the English have the terrible combination of gullibility and apathy necessary in order to allow the Tories (or a Tory-UKIP coalition) into power in 2015, there's not much the Scottish electorate can do to save us from our own collective stupidity. All you would be able to do is share the appalling consequences with us, despite having voted strongly against it yourselves.

The best thing that the Scottish can do for the English is to vote for independence, then elect a social democratic government of your own. This would show us that there is a viable alternative to hardline neoliberal dogma, and it would show us the value of increased regional autonomy too.

Please don't let pity for the English cloud your decision in the Scottish independence referendum. We don't need your pity and pointless self-sacrifices, what we need is for someone to show us that there is actually a better way of doing things.Another Angry Voice
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